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Northern Australia Investment Forum held in Darwin

Xinhua, November 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

A three-day forum held by the Australian federal government was inaugurated here on Sunday with an aim to promote the tropical northern Australia as a major destination for foreign investment.

Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said the forum was aimed at attracting crucial new investment into northern Australia.

"The north's time has come. It is a region dripping with potential and we are determined to do what we can to attract critical new investment into the projects and infrastructure that will help drive future growth, job-creation and prosperity," Robb said.

Some 350 investors and business leaders from more than 20 countries and regions have attended the forum.

Northern Australia covers the whole Northern Territory and parts of Queensland and Western Australia. It comprises only 5 percent of Australia's 23 million population yet 40 percent of the land mass of the world's sixth largest country by area.

There are 17 million hectares of arable soil in the north. The resource-rich north also accounts for 90 percent of Australia's gas reserves.

Agribusiness and food, tourism infrastructure, resources and energy, major infrastructure, tropical medicine, and innovation and education will be key areas to attract investors.

Robb said Australia has a rare place as one of the few developed countries in the Tropical Zones, where half of the world's population will reside by 2050.

Earlier this year, the Australian government issued the White Paper on Developing the Northern Australia, promising to provide potential investors with a better business environment, including simpler land arrangement, better water infrastructure, appropriate infrastructure, less red tape and good governance.

Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia Josh Frydenberg said the White Paper and forum like this help build business to business and government links to facilitate the development of Northern Australia.

He also announced that a Major Project Approval Agency will be opened in Darwin in January next year to help with regulatory obligation issues of companies which want to invest in Northern Australia.

Frydenberg, who took the current portfolio after the cabinet reshuffle in September, said the current government led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is committed to developing the north. Enditem